Customary vs Private Property Rights? Dynamics and Trajectories of Vernacular Land Markets in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Contemporary discourse on land in Africa is polarized between advocates of tenure reform through state registration of individual titles to land and others who claim that customary or 'communal' tenure is the only check against landlessness among the poor in the African countryside, and that 'pro-poor' land policy should therefore strengthen customary rights to land. This paper draws on a growing body of evidence on the emergence of vernacular rural land sales and rental markets to question assumptions that underlie the non-market 'ideal type' communal tenure model that has historically dominated policy thinking in Africa, and continues to be shared by both sides of the current land tenure reform debate. The paper argues that recognition of the specific characteristics of 'vernacular land markets'– commoditized transfers of land within the framework of customary tenure – is essential if state land policies are to succeed in promoting the interests of the poor.     

Policy Discourses on Women's Land Rights in Sub–Saharan Africa: The Implications of the Re–turn to the Customary

This article examines some contemporary policy discourses on land tenure reform in sub–Saharan Africa and their implications for women's interests in land. It demonstrates an emerging consensus among a range of influential policy institutions, lawyers and academics about the potential of so–called customary systems of land tenure to meet the needs of all land users and claimants. This consensus, which has arisen out of critiques of past attempts at land titling and registration, particularly in Kenya, is rooted in modernizing discourses and/or evolutionary theories of land tenure and embraces particular and contested understandings of customary law and legal pluralism. It has also fed into a wide–ranging critique of the failures of the post–colonial state in Africa, which has been important in the current retreat of the state under structural adjustment programmes. African women lawyers, a minority dissenting voice, are much more equivocal about trusting the customary, preferring instead to look to the State for laws to protect women's interests. We agree that there are considerable problems with so–called customary systems of land tenure and administration for achieving gender justice with respect to women's land claims. Insufficient attention is being paid to power relations in the countryside and their implications for social groups, such as women, who are not well positioned and represented in local level power structures. But considerable changes to political and legal practices and cultures will be needed before African states can begin to deliver gender justice with respect to land.     

Rural Youth and Circulating Labour in South India: The Tortuous Paths Towards Respect for Madigas

This paper explores how young male Dalit labourers negotiate the changes and continuities of labour relations in the construction industry, and power relations in rural Telangana in southern India. It looks at the fluidity between three segments of the classes of labour, namely debt‐bonded, unskilled/self‐employed and educated labourers. It examines how Dalit youths' experiences and representations of labour circulation and political clientelism shape and are shaped by the articulation between the construction industry and rural leaders, and by class, family, caste and generational relations in the village. Two points are made. First, circulation at the bottom of the labour hierarchy prevents labourers (even educated ones) to accumulate capital and participate in collective action: rather, the total lack of protection at work has brought about renewed and graded forms of dependence and political clientelism. Second, circulation serves as a locus that fosters and segments young male Dalit labourers' quests for respect, but hinders them from getting involved in political competition against rural leaders.     

Dynamics of agricultural land use change in Kerala: a policy and social-ecological perspective

Land-use change is a phenomenon highlighting significant shifts in human interaction with the natural environment. Different patterns of agriculture and a trend towards non-agricultural land use challenge the sustainability of farming systems. This study aims to identify the causes of changes in land use and cropping patterns, with a special focus on paddy, the staple crop in Asia. In the case of Wayanad, a district in Kerala, South India, we argue for an interdisciplinary analysis of rapid land-use change to unpack the multiple dimensions of sustainability: economic, ecological and social factors, aggregating up to 70% reduction in the area under paddy by 2010. The results rest on empirical field research, participatory rural appraisals and stakeholder workshops conducted during the 4-year period from 2010 to 2013, along with state- and district-level data covering the 1983–2011 period. Reduced economic viability, labour shortages and population pressure on land are the major drivers for the transformation of paddy fields to other land uses. Changes in land use and agrarian structure reflect not only the livelihood strategies adopted by farmers in response to these drivers, but also the impacts of unintended policy idiosyncrasies. At a more fundamental level, they are the consequences of policy conflicts and inadequate sectoral integration of policies and implementation strategies.     

The impacts of information on returns from farming: evidence from a nationally representative farm survey in India

Using a nationally representative sample of farm households from India, this paper examines the impact of use of information on net farm incomes. Employing methodologies that mitigate potential biases in the estimation of the impact, the empirical results show that farmers who use information realize over 12% higher net returns per hectare. The paper also establishes a pecking order in access to information. Small farmers and those at the bottom of social hierarchy (based on caste) have access to fewer information sources, and they depend more on informal social networks and input dealers for their information needs. The larger farmers and those from upper caste rely relatively more on sources such as radio, television and newspaper.     

Vertical Integration and Sunk Capital in Transition Economies

In recent years a distinction has been made in the development literature between “Asian” poverty, which is thought to be the result of high rural population densities and high rates of landlessness, and “African” poverty, which is more the result of sparse populations farming poor quality land and cut off by inadequate infrastructure from markets for goods, labour and credit. This paper pursues this distinction in the context of Indonesia and points out that in recent years the highest incidence of poverty has been found not in the densely settled islands of Java and Bali, but in the more remote and less populated provinces in the eastern part of the archipelago. This paper explores the correlates of poverty by province in Indonesia in 1996 and finds support for the view that the poorest provinces are those characterized by low population densities, undeveloped markets, low road densities and low educational attainment. The policy implications of these findings are examined in the final part of the paper.     

Land for dignity and struggle for identity: Landlordism and caste in a village of south India

The paper is concerned with the contemporary relevance of caste to agrarian capitalism and the relations of dependency and allegiance it fosters in a village of Andhra Pradesh. It deploys the method of village study to examine the two-way interaction between agrarian class and caste relations and the emerging rural-based informal nonfarm economy. It elaborates the continuation of relations of debt, dependency, and political allegiance fostered by landlordism despite significant diversification to nonfarm by landlords and labour and identifies the crucial role of land inequality and the working of ritual hierarchy in locking Dalit caste in land-based relations of dependency. The paper highlights the importance of expanding the definition of landlordism as the use of social power for accumulation by embedding it in the motives and values generated by the Hindu social order. While the new wave of literature focuses attention on global capital and commodity chains to understand differentiation of rural population and ruralities, the paper emphasizes the persistent significance of landholding provincial capital in shaping class/caste relations and rural politics and argues for a course correction in thinking about the processes of globalization and new forms of labour control and stresses the continuing significance of the agrarian question.     

India’s land grab deals in Ethiopia: Food security or global politics?

The so called “land grabbing” has gained increased attention since the outburst of the global financial and food crisis triggering a new trend of acquiring land for outsourcing production of food, feed and agrofuels. India as one of the newly emerging economies is investing heavily in farmland as it faces enormous challenges to sustain its rising population and growing energy demands. This paper analyses Indian land acquisitions in Ethiopia, looking into India’s motivations to acquire farmland and what incentives does Ethiopia have to lease out land to large investors. The paper draws on trade data between India and Ethiopia, expert interviews, studies and reports on the use and productivity of grabbed land. In view of the land grabbing and food security debate, the paper critically evaluates whether acquiring farmland in Ethiopia can indeed contribute to food and energy security in India.     

Land restitution and communal property associations: The Elandskloof case

Elandskloof was the first land restitution case in post-apartheid South Africa in which the government returned land to a community. The communal property association became dysfunctional, and the courts placed it under government administration. In its haste to return land to the community in the aftermath of the apartheid system the state did not set up comprehensive planning and consultative processes within government institutions, the beneficiary community and NGOs before returning the land. Consequently, the beneficiaries entertained expectations of resources that have not been met due to regulatory and institutional constraints, which have fuelled intense anger. In addition, internal community conflicts over membership eligibility and access to power and resources have bedevilled the project. The advantage of communal property associations is that they offer great flexibility in how a community can set up its land tenure system and the associated rules. However, lack of regulatory structure at the outset places great strain on a governing committee which has to create the rules, police them, judge them and administer sanctions. In Elandskloof, this occurred while the community was being reconstructed and the legitimacy of the governing committee itself was challenged. A major lesson is that the administrative structure, membership boundaries, and the land tenure rules should be established prior to land being returned to a community, and administrative powers need to be separated, at least until the community has settled. The case also raises policy questions about government administration of dysfunctional communal property associations.     

从敦煌文书看唐五代私有土地的发展途径

唐中叶以后，随着均田制的瓦解，地主私有土地急剧发展，其发展途径主要是请射和买卖。请射的土地主要是绝户地、不办承料户地和官荒地。这时土地买卖已排除了交易双方之外的各种干预，不再受国家的制约，也不需要官府审核和裁决。买卖双方完全可以根据个人意志自由买卖土地，确认私契的决定作用。私契的公开和合法，正是土地私有化的反映。不仅如此，晚唐五代归义军时期，卖地契有关双方权利义务的文本形式，已和卖宅舍契、卖牛契的形式一样，表明此时土地已和宅舍、牛一样，成为人户的私有财产，土地拥有者可以根据自己的意志支配土地。     

Special Economic Zones and Accumulation by Dispossession in India

This paper seeks to reconstruct David Harvey's theory of accumulation by dispossession (ABD) through an ethnography of a Special Economic Zone in Rajasthan, India. While Harvey sees ABD as an economic process of over‐accumulated capital finding new outlets, I argue that it is an extra‐economic process of coercive expropriation typically exercised by states to help capitalist overcome barriers to accumulation – in this case, the absence of fully capitalist rural land markets. In India's privately developed SEZs, the accumulation generated by this dispossession – which represents the disaccumulation of the peasantry – occurs through capitalist rentiers who develop rural land for mainly IT companies and luxury real estate, and profit from the appreciation of artificially cheap land acquired by the state. While such development has only minimally and precariously absorbed the labour of dispossessed farmers, it has generated a peculiar agrarian transformation through land speculation that has enlisted fractions of the rural elite into a chain of rentiership, drastically amplified existing class and caste inequalities, undermined food security and, surprisingly, fuelled non‐productive economic activity and pre‐capitalist forms of exploitation.     

四川省人口、耕地和粮食可持续发展研究

四川省在西部大开发中占有举足轻重的地位;根据该省人口、耕地、粮食的历史资料,采用灰色系统GM（1,1）模型预测了人口、耕地以及粮食的发展趋势,并对三者进行了关联度分析,根据预测和分析结果,探讨了人口、耕地和粮食可持续发展的对策和措施。     

环鄱阳湖城市群人口城市化与土地城市化协调度评价

将环鄱阳湖城市群作为研究对象,着力于构建城市化协调评价指标体系,分析人口城市化与土地城市化时空特征,借助均方差权值法和协调度模型研判两者的协调发展水平及特征。研究发现:(1)环鄱阳湖城市群人口城市化与土地城市化水平均呈现递增的时序演变特征,土地城市化的演进速度更快;市域人口城市化差距逐渐扩大,离散程度逐渐缩小;土地城市化的空间分异和两极分化现象相当明显。(2)人口城市化与土地城市化水平的差距逐渐缩小,两者的耦合度呈现逐渐提高的趋势;协调发展水平呈现由低级向高级、由磨合阶段向协调阶段递进式时序演变的规律;空间格局上表现出市域协调发展等级极化现象明显和城市化发展类型以土地城市化滞后型为主的特征。(3)人口城市化与土地城市化之间,及两者与协调度之间,分别具有显著的正相关关系,人口城市化与协调度之间的联系更为密切。针对区域内各城市所处的城市化协调发展阶段和状态,因地制宜地制定城市发展战略十分必要。     

The effectiveness of state preferential property tax programs in conserving forests: Comparisons,measurements, and challenges

Forest property taxes have been identified as one of the major driving forces behind forest loss and parcelization. Among various policy alternatives for reducing the burden of forest property taxes on landowners, preferential property tax programs have been widely used across states. Existing research has mostly focused on individual property tax programs, particularly those based on current use valuation, while little has been done to document, analyze and compare programs across states. By examining survey data from state preferential property tax program administrators across the United States, this paper describes the commonalities and differences among states regarding their preferential property tax programs, provides a preliminary understanding of the relationship between state preferential property tax policy and trends in private forest conditions, and identifies issues related to the effectiveness of state preferential property tax programs and private forest land management and conservation. Our analysis revealed three fundamental disconnects: (1) Program attributes that were previously considered to be important for preferential property tax programs to be effective in retaining forest land and fostering management did not consistently correlate with program effectiveness as viewed by the administrators of these programs; (2) These program attributes did not consistently correlate with actual program effectiveness as measured at the state level by forest trend indicators used in this study (i.e., change in private forest land cover, change in average size of private forest holdings, extent to which private forest land is being actively managed); and (3) The self-assessed program effectiveness did not consistently correlate with actual program effectiveness, either. The various ways in which the effectiveness of preferential property tax programs is defined and measured contribute to explaining these disconnects. It is particularly important for researchers and policy makers to be explicit about how they define and measure effectiveness and the scale on which they conduct their analysis before assessing and comparing programs or suggesting improvement strategies.     

Systems approach to pro-poor land reforms: A concept paper

There has been renewed interest in the academic discourse on land reforms due to recent high profile works suggesting a positive correlation between reforms and poverty reduction. Land is held under different tenure regimes in different regions, countries and communities. These are often in the form of community tenure, state tenure, individual tenure or a mixture of two or three of them. However, land reformers are in constant debate as to which of the three offers the most appropriate pathway to poverty reduction. The policy outcomes of such debates have been to superimpose one tenure option over the other in differing situations. This article conceptualises a metaphorical approach to land reforms grounded on general systems theory. It advocates for contextualised methodological rigour and an approach to land reforms reliant on the influencing variables of alternative land tenure regimes as opposed to wanton superimposition of one form of tenure over the other.     

Livestock and land share contracts in a Hindu society

This article examines factors related to a livestock rental market in western Nepal and assesses whether this market is associated with caste differentiation and land rental market participation. Theoretical models for asset‐rich (i.e., high‐caste) households, rich in land and livestock, and asset‐poor (i.e., low‐caste families) households are presented to provide logical explanations for the existence of a livestock rental market and the synergy between livestock and land rental markets participation. A combination of double hurdle models and bivariate‐ordered probit models were used to test the implications of the models. Consistent with the theoretical models, land‐ and livestock‐rich high‐caste households were more likely to rent out land and/or livestock, whereas land‐ and livestock‐poor and credit constrained low‐caste households were more likely to rent livestock and land from others. Participation in the two markets was positively correlated, indicating a synergistic relationship that may be due to production and transaction costs reducing benefits. Policies that can enhance the allocative efficiency of livestock and land rental markets can improve equity as well as efficiency of land use in Nepal. Provision of livestock credit to land‐poor low‐caste households is also crucially dependent on their access to more long‐term contracts for land.     

对我国集体林区产权改革一些问题的认识

集体林产权改革必须尊重历史,尊重广大基本群众对土地和民生的基本诉求,切实维护他们对土地的基本权力,核心是公平,而不是效率,效率上的改革企图只能在局部成功。新一轮林业产权改革没有触及林业行政和政府服务体系的改革。建议:尽快彻底取消林业税费;加强林业产权制度、基层森林管理模式、利益分配机制的综合研究和试验;林业部门主动放弃“森林”和“环境”等主导名词,而代替为“林农”“、林业”和“林区“”三林问题”新的话语;用以购买农民的森林所有权和林地使用权寻求少数林区作为改革试点,探索林区社会福利事业生态路径和管理模式,探索集体林区森林国有化改革的道路;寻求多样化、有弹性的林业改革发展道路。